Dayhok and Isolde
by Matok
Summary: "And of course there'd be bloody spiders. Goddamned arachnids. They're everywhere these days." Dayhok and Isolde tackle the Spider Caverns as they continue in their journeys through Sanctuary. Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

Dayhok exhaled deeply through his nose, calling his small group to a halt under a stairwell that seemed relatively safe. His team was a little worse for wear entering their third hour of traversing the sanctuary; Lassie and Cassandra both wore gashes that tore through their gray fur, the carrion vine was moving sluggish due to an amount of consumed poisoned flesh, the raven had long since flown off, and lastly, Isolde was ready to commit mutiny and elect the Oak Sage as their new leader.

"How could you have managed to botch up navigating the portals Dayhok? You didn't consult the map, you didn't consult the runes and look where we are currently. In the middle of bloody nowhere you tosser!" Isolde stormed past the weary druid to sit moodily on a sheaf of collapsed stones.

Dayhok winced at the reproving venom dripping from her voice. "It was a simple mistake anyone could have made," he set his pack down to retrieve what was left of their supply of healing potions. "Right or left, and I chose right. The map couldn't have told me what portal to take, it's a map."

"If you had just gone around the perimeter of the area and done some scouting for once in your bloody life we wouldn't have run in to this problem now would we?" Isolde took out an arrowhead and small spool of wire to mend a broken shaft. "Map be hanged you never think these things through, and just look at Lassie and Cassandra. You're lucky Phillip has been fixed, otherwise he'd tear you limb from limb and feed the pieces to the carrion vine!"

Dayhok scoffed. "I'm taking care of the wolves now woman, leave it be already. Besides, this whole navigation of the incredibly annoying Arcane Sanctuary would be a lot less daunting if you'd restock the Tome of Town Portal once and a moon."

"We would not have run out so quickly if you'd not keep getting 'over burdened' for every item you store."

"And what, it hurts your womanly guiles to carry a damn item every now and then?"

Isolde glared at her druid companion. "Somebody who actually can fight has to cover your slow reaction to casting."

Dayhok shot her an annoyed look but spared any further words. He began to wrap his wolf's side as the she drank from the red potion with feeble laps. Tying the bandage off, he stood and paced to the edge of their cramped hide-away. He frowned, looking into the black distance. _Seven Hells, how many portals can there be?_ Apparently, the Summoner has a sense of humor. As far as he could see, little glowing red spheres dotted the endless sanctuary. He took out the magically enhanced map and stared blankly at it, scratching his ear thoughtfully.

"Well?" Isolde asked, from that odd cross legged sitting position she favored so much, "I should think the self-proclaimed 'Greatest Druid' in all of Sanctuary could follow a map. It's bloody _magical,_ after all."

"You know what? YOU take a look at the thing." And promptly threw the map at her.

"Looks as if someone missed their mid-after noon nap, little wolf," Isolde smirked at him, catching the map easily with one hand.

He scowled at her and went over to the afore mentioned, pack. In his defense, it _was_ very heavy and the little leather bag was full to the brim with valuable items to sell back in town. Adventuring wasn't cheap, and everything in Lut Gholein cost an arm and a leg. Even the water they filled their skins with cost twice as much as a nice, shiny new, knife would back in Scosglen. Dayhok dug around a bit before pulling out the Tome of Town Portal.

He opened the small blue book and began to thumb through it, searching for an unused page. He went through half of the tome before he looked down at Isolde.

"You _did_ stock this last time we were in town, right Isolde?"

Her pale cheeks colored, and suddenly, her fiery eyes would not meet his.

"Well…um, Waheed was guarding the gates and we… erm, started talking, and I may have… never gotten around to it?" She squeaked the last part out, and looked up at him with a chagrined smile.

"YOU WHAT?" Dayhok roared, "By Tyrael's name woman! The fate of this plane depends on us, and you spend your time philandering with that pathetic excuse of a man they try to pass off as a mercenary?"

"Don't you bloody dare, Dayhok!" she spat back at him, leaping up from the rubble "You think I don't know Lut Gholein is famous for it's brothels? You were practically drooling at the prospect of coming here! And yo-"

The sudden flurry of movement redirected the attention of both druid and rouge. Six goatmen were running, no, _charging_, at them; seemingly from out of nowhere. In the time it took Dayhok to breathe, Cassandra was on top of the foremost goat man. An instant later he heard the familiar _twang_ of Isolde's bow. The silver tipped arrow whipped past his head and embedded itself squarely between the lumbering monsters red eyes. It dropped dead at the feet of its other charging comrades with a final bray and gurgle. Almost humorous, really. The remaining five monsters seemed momentarily taken aback. Dayhok seized the opportunity to whack the nearest goatman soundly on the head with his club, before another of Isolde's arrows landed in the creature's gut.

Two goatmen came stampeding towards them, and Dayhok sent out a chilling blast of air that froze the things solid. The remaining demons were quickly killed through the combined efforts of Isolde and all three wolves. One of the frozen goatmen began to twitch slightly, but remained frozen for the time being.

"Do you think there is a bottom?" Dayhok asked, leaning over the side of the platform.

Isolde looked thoughtful for a second, and then smirked,

"Why don't we find out?" And with that, she gave the now braying, half-frozen goatman a push. They both stared down into the deep black, and watched the creature grow smaller and smaller, until finally, they could see no more.

"Well," Isolde was still peering down into the darkness, "that's just delightful".

"Mm, indeed."

They pushed the remaining goatman down after its comrade, with the same result. Dayhok sighed heavily, and turned to face his small band. The three wolves were sniffing at their dead foes, and Phil took the time to relieve himself on a goatman carcass before the carrion vine started to eat away at the dead flesh. The oak sage was floating tranquilly by Isolde, who stood with her hand on her hip, staring out into the horizon.

"When I find that bloody raven, I'm going to make us the finest roast you've ever tasted."

Dayhok had no doubts about that.


	2. Chapter 2

"Damned bloody cave," Isolde cursed under her breath as she let fly another round of arrows into the thick body of a Poison Spinner.

"And of course there'd be bloody spiders. Everywhere we go," Another shot, another spider became a corpse.

"Goddamned, buggering, Spiders."

Dayhok was struggling himself, dealing with his own clump of spiders while simultaneously trying to replenish his party's mana supply.

"Isolde, if you would kindly keep your interjections to yourself," He set Cassie on a flanking spider.

"This is difficult enough without your input."

Strangely, his fiery mercenary made no rebuttal to this. The onslaught of spiders doubled, then tripled, making arrows fly and ravens squaw. Dayhok sent torrents of wind into a group of descending enemies, wincing as a sharp claw connected with his calf. The Spider was quickly disembodied as a torrent of fire exploded in its abdomen, spewing spider innards all over their small band.

"Yick," Isolde stared disgustedly down at her leather armor, now covered in an array of spider guts. "Was that truly necessary, Dayhok?"

He grinned back at her across the carcass, " It's a lovely improvement, don't you think?" Dayhok continued to fling fireballs at the massive abominations.

Hmm, highly flammable… Well, that was surely something that could be used to their advantage.

Dayhok was suddenly struck with an idea to clear out the remaining spiders.

"Isolde! This way!" Isolde spun around to see Dayhok retreating to a narrow passageway with the animals in tow. She followed quickly, running lithely to his side.

"Get behind me," He called to her, half over his shoulder.

"Oh bugger off, I'm not letting you go out back out there half fr-"

"GET BACK!"

Isolde jumped back at the tone of his voice and Dayhok took the opportunity to alight the entire cavern with a storm of explosive fireballs. Unfortunately, the band was again splattered with spider legs and various other unpleasant parts of the spider anatomy. At least Phil seemed to enjoy it, treating the flung about appendages like an impromptu game of fetch.

After a moment, when arachnid pieces were no longer flying through the air, Dayhok stepped forward to examine his handiwork.

"Well! That went better than expected!" He beamed back at the rouge, but she did not seem to share his excitement. In fact, she did not look pleased in the slightest at the results of his brilliant plan.

"WHAT IN THE SEVEN HELLS WERE YOU THINKING!" For a woman, Dayhok thought, Isolde could be very, very loud. "That was sheer idiocy! And look what you've gone and done you lack wit!"

Isolde pointed down at the raven, which was most definitely not alive.

"Sheer idiocy is my fighting style!" He paused for a second to take in the raven, its feathers slightly singed. "And those damned birds are useless anyways," he grumbled, "Always trying to fly away…"

"Ugh, let's just find this bloody eye and get on with it. Better be worth it. Or I swear on Tyrael's accounting desk that I'm going to take the loot, and then the first ship out of here!"

And with that, Isolde stalked away motioning the wolves to follow her, which they did stupid, disloyal creatures. Ahh well, never trust an animal whose loyalty can be bought with a biscuit. Well, Isolde was known to carry some bloody delicious biscuits. Dayhok would know, she'd won him over long ago.


End file.
